Spike, One time at Sandusky bay, (lake Erie, OH) I put my boat in with out the plug in place. (I was in a hurry.) When I was building it I put Styrofoam under the flooring. So when the boat filled up with 8” of water it was still floating with water at the floor level, about 8" above the bottom of the boat. I had a heck of a time trying to get that darn plug in with all that water gushing in. I had to reach over the transom and block the outside hole and screw the plug in place at the same time. Then the 7.5 hp air cooled game finder outboard would not even think about getting the boat up on plane with me and two fishing buddies in it. So most of the water stayed in the boat, under the flooring. We were in the bay less than 15 min before ODNR asked me to follow them in because I looked overloaded. Good news no citation issued.